A surgeon in a hospital thousands of kilometres from Shanghai guides a robotic arm through a screen. The machine on the other end was built by a Chinese company that, until recently, sold almost nothing outside its home market.
That company is MicroPort MedBot (微创机器人), the Shanghai-based surgical robotics arm of the MicroPort group, listed in Hong Kong under code 2252. Its story in 2025 is less about a single breakthrough and more about a quiet shift in where the money now comes from.
For years the dream of domestically built surgical robots was a domestic one. The 2025 results suggest the export aisle opened first.
Key takeaways
- FY2025 revenue reached RMB 551.1 million (≈ US$77.6m / HK$606m), up 114% year on year (HKEX annual report, 2025).
- Overseas sales hit RMB 400.2 million (≈ US$56.4m / HK$440m), 73% of total, up 287% (HKEX annual report, 2025).
- Toumai laparoscopic robot passed 220 cumulative orders and 140 installations across 50+ countries (HKEX annual report, 2025).
- The group remains loss-making, with a net loss of RMB 254 million (≈ US$35.8m / HK$279m) (HKEX annual report, 2025).
- Toumai remote system won NMPA approval in April 2025, described as the world's first such registration (company annual report).
One robot carries the results
MicroPort MedBot sells a small portfolio of robots, but one name carries the results: Toumai (图迈), its laparoscopic surgical system. In the 2025 annual report filed with the Hong Kong exchange, the company states total revenue reached RMB 551.1 million, more than double the prior year's RMB 257.2 million (HKEX annual report, 2025). The increase was not evenly spread. Domestic revenue was roughly flat at RMB 151 million, while overseas revenue surged to RMB 400.2 million, a 287% rise that lifted export sales to 73% of the total (HKEX annual report, 2025).
The wider catalogue also advanced. SkyWalker (鸿鹄), the group's orthopedic robot, passed 65 cumulative orders and 50 installations across five continents, according to the same filing (HKEX annual report, 2025). A vascular interventional robot, R-ONE, began commercial rollout in leading Chinese hospitals after its late-2024 approval.
Gross margin expanded to 48% from 34% a year earlier, helped by manufacturing scale and a richer mix of recurring instrument sales (HKEX annual report, 2025). On the cost side, selling and marketing expense as a share of sales fell to 36.9% from 80.8%, and research spending dropped 30% as projects moved from development to commercialisation (HKEX annual report, 2025).
Why hospitals abroad said yes
Toumai's export push is the headline. The company reports more than 220 cumulative commercial orders for the robot and over 140 installations in more than 50 countries and regions (HKEX annual report, 2025). In 2025 alone it added 80 installations, with more than 60 of those outside China (HKEX annual report, 2025).
Named markets give a flavour of the geography:
- India, with around 14 cumulative units, is the strongest emerging-market footprint (broker recap of FY2025).
- Brazil has more than 10 cumulative units, a notable entry into Latin America (broker recap of FY2025).
- Spain and Australia are cited as faster-breaking developed markets (broker recap of FY2025).
The pitch is familiar: a Chinese-made system priced below the established incumbent, with clinical proof points gathered across urology, general surgery, thoracic, and gynecology cases. Whether price alone sustains loyalty once the honeymoon of first installs ends is the part no annual report can prove.
Remote surgery and a regulatory first
One claim separates Toumai from most rivals. In April 2025 the Toumai remote system received approval from China's NMPA, which the company describes as the world's first registration certificate for a remote surgical robot (company annual report). The same filing states the remote system had completed nearly 800 clinical procedures with a 100% success rate, and had been approved in close to ten countries (company annual report).
The engineering behind that claim is real: the system is built to run over ordinary networks, including 5G, broadband, dedicated lines, and satellite links, rather than requiring a private connection. Yet a registration certificate is not a clinical verdict. Remote surgery still depends on stable hospital networks, clear liability rules, and surgeon training that no piece of paper supplies.
Profit is still a projection
The growth curve is genuine, but the company is not yet profitable. Net loss narrowed to RMB 254 million from about RMB 647 million, a 60.7% improvement, and free cash outflow shrank to roughly RMB 63 million, turning positive in the second half of 2025 (HKEX annual report, 2025). That is progress, not a finish line.
Competition is tightening. Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci still dominates globally, and several domestic peers are chasing the same hospitals with their own laparoscopic systems. A sales mix so heavily weighted to new overseas markets also concentrates execution risk: if approvals, reimbursement, or local service lag, the 73% figure can reverse as quickly as it appeared.
Honest limitations
This article relies on the company's own 2025 annual report filed with the Hong Kong exchange and on broker recaps that summarise it; independent clinical-outcome data for Toumai was not separately verified. The "world's first" remote-registration phrasing is the company's wording, not an independent judgement, and the 100% remote-surgery success rate is a management statement. Figures such as installations and orders are company-reported and unaudited at the unit level. Currency conversions use a fixed rate of RMB 7.1 to the US dollar and RMB 1 to HK$1.1.
What readers can do now
- Operators (hospitals): treat Toumai's 220-order footprint as a shortlist signal, then demand local installation, training, and instrument-supply track record before committing capital.
- Investors: watch overseas installation growth and gross margin as the real test, not headline revenue, because the group is still loss-making.
- Researchers: track peer-reviewed studies on remote-surgery latency and outcomes, where the company's claims still need independent confirmation.